Evolution and level of agricultural support in Turkey and in the European Union

Özet:

The developments of agricultural support policies in Turkey and in the
European Union are different from each other. When the EU was applying
protectionist policies, Turkey was on the way of liberalising its economy in 1980s.
After Uruguay Round (1995), developed countries took steps for reducing
protectionist policies in agriculture for the first time. As Turkey and European
Union were signatories of the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture, they
reduced their support levels. Despite the successful reforms and WTO (World Trade
Organization) commitments, support level in the European Union remained high.
Only in the last years, producer support estimate had a decreasing trend. Instead,
Turkey increased the support policy that requires production and so producer
support estimate increased after 2000. While the support level is not as high as in
the EU, producer support estimate is at EU and OECD levels in the last years.
This paper, so as to contribute to the literature, examines the agricultural
support policies and levels in Turkey and in the European Union for better
understanding the differences between them. In this regard, the aim of the paper is
to develop an approach to comment on the differences in agricultural policies by
comparing them and on the protection levels between Turkey and European Union
by using Producer Support Estimate of OECD.